Cardboard dividers are commonly used in containers, such as cardboard boxes and crates, to divide the interior of the containers into a plurality of sections for receiving protection in storage and transit. These dividers are commonly inserted in a container by automatic machines and the container carrying the divider is then filled, usually also by an automatic casing machine.
Use of automatic casing machines, in particular, has caused some difficulty with containers which have used previous cardboard dividers. The dividers must divide the interior of a container into equal volumetric sections and there must be no distortion or racking of the divider. If the divider is distorted or racked it is not possible for the casing machine to insert the articles into the case, since the articles will not index properly with the assigned space, due to the unexpected shape of the divider.
Prior dividers attempted to solve the problem of accurately positioning the divider by using a dead cell construction in which the ends of some of the partitions extended past the expected location of the articles and spaced the articles in the container from a wall of the container. The partitions were tied together by a cross partition spaced from the container wall. The dead cell construction method, having the dead cell located adjacent to one wall of the container, has some inherent drawbacks. The symmetry of the articles placed in the container is interrupted, and the presence of the dead cell at the periphery of the container weakens the container and allows weight, e.g., of other stacked containers, to collapse the dead cell portion of the container first. The dead cell portion of the container is also easily penetrated from impact or from outside forces. That is, external forces can cause penetration of the wall of the container adjacent to the dead cell.
Applicant's divider removes the dead cell from the periphery of the container and restores the symmetry of the packed articles in the container, thereby substantially lessening the possibility of penetration into the dead cell area by externally applied forces. By restoring the symmetry of the stored articles in the container, the strength of the articles stored may be utilized to increase the strength of the total container package so that there is not an area of the container at the periphery which is substantially weaker than the rest of the container.
The divider eliminates use of dead cell space at the perimeter of the container by placing two parallel tying strips centrally of the divider and spaced substantially from the periphery of the container and adjacent to each other. The tying strips interlock with the partitions of the divider to hold the partitions in a substantially parallel relationship so they are not able to rack or distort about their intended locations in the container. By using this construction, the spaces designed to be occupied by articles stored in the container are symmetrically located about the periphery of the container and there is no substantial area of weakness into which the periphery of the container can collapse or into which external forces can penetrate.
Applicant's divider may be readily manufactured, assembled and inserted in the containers using automatic machinery and is readily adapted to use in automatic casing processes. Stacking strength is also increased by the additional centrally located partitions.